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The Rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Germany, 1933. Who Are These Men?. The Young Turks . Propagated a genocide against the Armenian people from 1915-1918 Killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenian Christians. Who is This Man?. Pol Pot.
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The Rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis Germany, 1933
The Young Turks • Propagated a genocide against the Armenian people from 1915-1918 • Killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenian Christians.
Pol Pot • Pol Pot and his Communist followers were responsible for the deaths of an estimated 2 million Cambodian citizens.
Emperor Hirohito & Prince Asaka • In one Chinese city called Nanking, the Japanese army raped, tortured and murdered over 300,000 Chinese civilians.
Mao Zedong • Through starvation and political purging, Mao Zedong is responsible for an estimated 18-70 million civilian deaths during his reign.
Joseph Stalin • From 1932-39, Stalin is responsible for the deaths of an estimated 23 million people through starvation and political purges.
Adolf Hitler • Between 1939-1945, Hitler is responsible for the deaths of an estimated 12 million people.
Adolf Hitler • Out of all the perpetrators of genocide in the 20th century, why is Adolf Hitler by far the most recognizable, infamous, and well known?
Possible Explanations • Unlike Stalin/Mao & Communism, Hitler & Nazism were inseparable. • Fascination with Hitler is similar to fascination with psychotic serial killers. • Of all the 20th century tyrannical murderers, Hitler’s story is probably the most tragic. • Hitler didn’t live long enough for his legacy to simmer. Rather, like a rock star who dies young, Hitler’s legacy only grew with time.
Who were the Nazis? • The Nazis were a socialist political party that developed in Germany after WW1. • Goals of the Nazi Party: • - eliminate communists in Germany • - answer the “Jewish Question” • - Overturn the Versailles Treaty • - Expand German territory
What did the Nazis believe in? • The superiority of the Aryan race. • The destiny of the Third Reich to last for 1,000 years. • Military mobilization. • Elimination of the Jews. • Subjugation of Communists.
The Nazis and Racial Superiority • The Nazis believes the Aryan white race to be the “supreme race” • They found support for their theories through one of the largest fields of pseudo-science ever: eugenics.
The Nazis and Eugenics • Eugenics: the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics). • In short: it’s a fake scientific field claiming that some races are genetically superior to others.
The Nazis Take Power • In 1933, after over a decade of political activity, the Nazi party officially took power. • Hitler came to power legally, he was elected. • However, after he was elected, Hitler created an authoritarian state in Germany. • He outlawed all political opposition. • The Rise of Hitler - Biography - YouTube
Hitler creates the SS • Hitler’s elite military police force wore black uniforms and was called the SS. • In 1934, Hitler’s SS arrested and murdered hundreds of Hitler’s remaining political opponents. • This came to be known as the “Night of Long Knives” and it shocked much of the German population into submission.
Nazis Take Command • Once he had supreme power, Hitler and his Nazi regime took control of every aspect of German life. • New laws banned labor strikes and unions. The government took control of all businesses.
Hitler Re-Builds the Economy • Hitler put millions of Germans to work constructing factories, highways, weapons, and serving in the military. • In just three years, the number of unemployed Germans dropped from 6 million to 1.5 million.
The Fuhrer is Supreme • Hitler wanted to be perceived as more than a king or a tyrant, he had God-like ambitions. • To advance this image of Hitler as the “Supreme Leader” in Germany, he created an entire government agency devoted to propaganda.
The Nazis in Power • Books that did not conform to Nazi beliefs were burned • Churches were forbidden to criticize the government • School children had to join the Hitler Youth or the League of German Girls
Hitler and the Jews • Anti-Semitism: hatred of Jews • Though the Nazis to Anti-Semitism to an extreme, this hateful ideology was not specific to Germany. • "All propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent of those towards whom it intends to direct itself." -Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf("My Struggle"), Vol. I
Hitler and the Jews • In Germany, Jews were less than 1% of the population. • They were used by the Nazis as scapegoats for everything that had gone wrong in Germany since WW1.
Hitler and the Jews • Beginning in 1933, the Nazis passes laws taking nearly all rights from Jews. • Violence against Jews escalated. • In November of 1938, this violence reached new heights in a mob attack known as “Kristallnacht” (night of the broken glass).
Kristallnacht • This night of violence marked the beginning of the Nazi policy of eliminating the Jews from German life. • Jews were eventually told that they had to wear stars on their clothing so everyone would know they were Jewish.
The Beginning of the Holocaust • Eventually, Hitler developed a plan to remove Jews from Germany. • He would move them to designated cities. Once there, Jews would live in overcrowded ghettos. • In these ghettos, Nazis waited for the Jews to eventually starve to death, or die from disease.
Hitler Grows Impatient • Hitler grew impatient waiting for these isolated Jews to die on their own. • He needed a plan to solve the “Jewish Question” • Hitler’s plan was called The Final Solution • The Final Solution was a program of genocide, the systematic killing of an entire group of people. • The Final Solution=The Holocaust
The Final Solution • The Nazis built extermination camps with huge gas chambers that could kill as many as 6,000 people a day.
Nazi Gas Chambers • When prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, they were paraded before a committee of SS doctors. These doctors separated the strong from the weak. Any Jews determined too weak to be valuable laborers were killed that day. They were told to undress for a shower and then led into a chamber with fake showerheads. After the doors were closed, cyanide gas or carbon dioxide poured from the showerheads or holed in the ceiling. All inside were killed in minutes. Later, the Nazis installed crematoriums, or ovens, to burn the bodies.
Warning • The following images are difficult to see. They are graphic. They are sad. They are horrifying. They are real. • Hitler’s “Final Solution” officially began in 1942. • Through this Holocaust, 6 million Jews were killed, along with some 2 million Christians, mentally handicapped people, gypsies, homosexuals, communists, and any other “undesirables”.
